Colon Cancer

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Winning the Battle Against Colon Cancer

At SCCA, colon and rectal cancer patients receive the very best care from the moment they begin treatment here. In fact, our doctors help define the national standards for colorectal cancer care.

Statistics Are Abstract; Lives Aren’t

Todd Lovern Todd Lovern was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in November 2010. Today, after many months of intensive treatment, Todd is back to running marathons and raising money for cancer research. Read more about Todd.

If you do have cancer, where you choose to go for initial treatment has a significant impact on the likelihood of survival. And when colorectal cancers are found early, the survival rate is high. SCCA doctors specializing in colorectal cancer use all the latest treatments, as well as new therapies that may be available only in clinical studies. As you can see in the charts below, patients treated at SCCA have the highest five-year survival rate for stage I, stage II, and stage IV colon cancer.

Colon Cancer Survival Rates

This information was collected by the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) for patients diagnosed between 1998 and 2002 and followed for five years. There were not enough SCCA patients diagnosed with stage 0 or stage III colon cancer between 1998 and 2002 to provide statistically accurate results.

Stage I Colon Cancer

  • SCCA patients are represented by the red line. Their five-year survival rate was 81 percent from the time they were first diagnosed by SCCA. Note that only patients who received all of their care from SCCA are included.
  • Patients from the other types of treatment centers—Community Cancer Centers, Comprehensive Community Cancer Centers, and Academic/Research Hospitals—are represented by blue, green, and yellow lines. Their five-year survival rates were between 73 and 78 percent.

Stage II Colon Cancer

  • SCCA patients are represented by the red line. Their five-year survival rate was 83 percent from the time they were first diagnosed by SCCA. Note that only patients who received all of their care from SCCA are included.
  • Patients from the other types of treatment centers—Community Cancer Centers, Comprehensive Community Cancer Centers, and Academic/Research Hospitals—are represented by blue, green, and yellow lines. Their five-year survival rates were between 61 and 67 percent.

Stage IV Colon Cancer

  • SCCA patients are represented by the red line. Their five-year survival rate was 26 percent from the time they were first diagnosed by SCCA. Note that only patients who received all of their care from SCCA are included.
  • Patients from the other types of treatment centers—Community Cancer Centers, Comprehensive Community Cancer Centers, and Academic/Research Hospitals—are represented by blue, green, and yellow lines. Their five-year survival rates were between 5 and 9 percent.

The NCDB tracks the outcomes of 70 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer in the United States from more than 1,500 commission-accredited cancer programs. It has been collecting data from hospital cancer registries since 1989 and now has almost 26 million records. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Data Collection Methodology